Leaks on heat-pipe

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staylorist

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Apr 2, 2008
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I just got all my bits from New Egg to start my first PC building attempt. Everything looks ok but except for my Xigmatek HDT-S1283 CPU Cooler. There are little beads of greenish liquid around a few places where the metal fins meet the copper heat-pipe. Is this normal?

I don't have a camera atm to post a picture, but should any fluid ever leak out of the heat-pipes?
 
there should NOT be any fluid! (the heatpipes are copper)

contact newegg asap. the replacement process is extremely painless, I suggest trying out the online chat... Ive only had to do it once, but newegg had a replacement sent out in less than 2 minutes with no questions asked.
 
Yes, that sounds like it could be a broken heat pipe to me.
RMA it, do not use.

Yes, there is a small amount of fluid in a Heat Pipe.
The tubes are sucked to a vacuum, then a small amount of coolant is added to the vacuum to transfer heat across the pipe.

I have never seen it happen but it could, conceivably, leak out if the pipe was punctured.
 
Thanks for the responses. There is no damage visible on this thing or its package. I don't know why it could be leaking. It coming out of onto the top blade and i can see some coming out from the joint of the fin and pipe on a lower section on the other side. Now I am scared to get another Xigmatek. Is this just a fluke?
 
You dont think the whole liquid inside vacuum sealed copper tubes sounds a little expensive for a $30 HSF? The heat pipes are solid copper.

I also have the same HSF, ordered from newegg. I had no problems with mine, and certainly less problems than my old scythe ninja.
 
Don't take a chance RMA it.
The Arctic Freezer 7 Pro is a bit better at cooling and somewhat cheaper.
But with the current shipping figured in it's neck and neck.
 
I am sorry skittle but I must disagree.
Please see the Wiki page on Heat Pipes. <== Link

Also, copper is expensive.
I think it would be much cheaper to take a thin walled copper pipe and put a little liquid into it than use a solid copper bar.
Think also of the weight you would have if all your heat pipes were solid copper.

Straight copper would also cool worse than the heat pipe.
Although a good conductor, it will still resist the flow of heat along such a long path redering many of the elabourate HSF setups useless.
 


Umm... no...

the xigmatek is almost a match for the ultra 120 extreme, at a price tag of $36

 
@outlw: I certainly hope you dont base your term papers off of wikipedia :non:

The only mention of CPUs in that entire entry was a bit WITH NO REFERENCES that says CPUs and GPUs use heatpipes.

Heat pipes are extensively used in many modern computer systems, where increased power requirements and subsequent increases in heat emission have resulted in greater demands on cooling systems. Heat pipes are typically used to move heat away from components such as CPUs and GPUs to heat sinks where thermal energy may be dissipated into the environment.
Click to expand...

The rest of the article talked about the Alaskan pipelines, NASA spacecraft, airplanes... you get the picture.

And yes copper is expensive, and heavy... thats why most HSFs include aluminum fins instead of copper.

Find something else BESIDES WIKIPEDIA that can backup your claims :sarcastic:
 
Sorry skittle... although you're absolutely correct regarding the Xigmatek being superior to the A/C/F7 Pro, you're digging a hole concerning heat pipes. outlw6669 is correct, and staylorist isn't hallucinating. Heat pipes are in fact hollow, and do in fact contain coolant. From the Heatsinc Guide: http://www.heatsink-guide.com/content.php?content=heatpipes.shtml

"A heat pipe is a device has an extremely high thermal conductivity, and is used to transport heat. In order to achieve this, heat pipes take advantage of simple physical effects: As a liquid evaporates, energy - in the form of heat - must be taken from the environment. Therefore, an evaporating liquid will cool the surrounding area. This is how a heat pipe effectively cools the heat source. However, this doesn't get rid of the heat; heat is just transported with the vapor. At the target side for heat transport, the heat pipe must be cooled, for example using a heatsink. Here, the inverse effect takes place: The liquid condenses, and therefore emits heat."

Hope this helps,

Comp :sol:
 
Straight from Wikipedia...


Corporate R&D
Publications in 1967 and 1968 by Feldman, Eastman, & Katzoff first discussed applications of heat pipes to areas outside of government concern and that did not fall under the high temperature classification such as; air conditioning, engine cooling, and electronics cooling. These papers also made the first mentions of flexible, arterial, and flat plate heat pipes. 1969 publications introduced the concepts of the rotational heat pipe with its applications to turbine blade cooling and the first discussions of heat pipe applications to cryogenic processes.

Starting in the 1980s Sony began incorporating heat pipes into the cooling schemes for some of its commercial electronic products in place of both forced convection and passive finned heat sinks. Initially they were used in tuners & amplifiers, soon spreading to other high heat flux electronics applications. During the late 1990s increasingly hot microcomputer CPUs spurred a threefold increase in the number of U.S. heat pipe patent applications. As heat pipes transferred from a specialized industrial heat transfer component to a consumer commodity most development and production moved from the U.S. to Asia. Modern CPU heat pipes are typically made from copper and use water as the working fluid.
 
Yes, heat pipes do contain coolant, usually it is water mixed with something else to decrease boiling/vaporization point for CPU coolers. Other higher temperature heatpipes can contain lithium, mercury, sodium or silver (1000C+). It is quite an efficient method for moving heat with minimal heat loss from point A to point B. I did a project and research on heatpipes during December-February for my science fair project 😉.
 
New Egg was awesome about the RMA. Got a shipping label in minutes. I actually requested a refund so I could get the replacement in two days and the money back in a week or so.

I decided to get another Xigmatek. If its dribbling I'll post an update.
 
Hmm...I just got my replacement. There was a very very faint green residue on the packing material where a heat-pipe contacted it. Maybe this stuff is actually a thermal interfacing material or grease used in inserting the pipes through the blades. Does anyone know? I'm going to just go ahead and stick this thing on. At least it doesn't have the large globs of the stuff on it and running along the top like the one i sent back.
 
Unfortunately, it's not probable that green thermal compound is used or green grease is applied for assembly. It's instead likely that Xigmatek has had a defective production run. Mark the area and watch closely for leakage. You may ultimately be facing a second RMA, in which case you'll need to order a different brand cooler.

Sorry you're having problems with Xigmatek.

Comp :sol:
 
Yeah I just got some correspondence from someone at Xigmatek and he said the green stuff is totally NOT normal.

Man I just want to build my computer!
 
Y'know, I just ordered my Xigmatek S1283 from NewEgg. This thread is making me seriously unhappy.

If I get green goop I'm gonna send it back and tell them to send me my money back rather than go through this much of a farce.
 
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